[B.T.]

Not knowing someone’s ethnicity is no excuse for the type of harassment you mention in your posting. However, it has been my experience that not being able to identify one’s ethnicty can be very troubling for some people. I also am ‘light skinned’ but until I started college thought it was rather obvious that I was black; however, I now know that not to be the case. What continues to surprise me to this day though is: A. How much people seem to dwell on figuring out what my race/ethnicity is — people normally don’t seem comfortable in just asking; and B. How unsettled people seem to get when they don’t know what my race/ethnicity is. It’s been my experience that many people unfortunately seem to need to know your race/ethnicity to know how they should (or I guess shouldn’t) relate to you.

User Detail :  

Name : B.T., Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/African American, Age : 28, City : Arlington, State : VA, Country : United States, Occupation : public affairs, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Author]

Posts